Not applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of buoyant devices in general and in particular to a buoyant platform that will provide access for a dog to a dock or a boat.
2. Description of Related Art
As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,273,774; 3,891,053; 5,515,806; and, U.S. Des. Pat. No. 412,224, the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse constructions that are specifically designed to allow a dog to gain access to a boat, dock or land vehicle.
While all of the aforementioned prior art constructions are more than adequate for the basic purpose and function for which they have been specifically designed, they are uniformly deficient with respect to their failure to provide a simple, efficient, and practical buoyant platform for dogs that not only provides access to a dock or boat, but which also provides a resting platform for the dog when the dog""s presence on the dock or the boat is not desired.
As anyone who owns a water dog is all to well aware, these animals have an unrelenting desire to continually retrieve items thrown into a body of water and the very first thing that they do after completing a retrieve is to shake themselves off, thereby soaking everything and anyone in their immediate vicinity.
As a consequence of the foregoing situation, there has existed a longstanding need among owners of water dogs for a new and improved buoyant platform for dogs which will allow the dog to climb out of the water and onto an intermediate platform upon which to rest and/or shed water prior to climbing onto a dock or boat.
Briefly stated, the buoyant platform for dogs that forms the basis of the present invention comprises in general a flotation unit, a lower ramp unit suspended from the flotation unit, and an upper platform unit that rests on the flotation unit.
As will be explained in greater detail further on in the specification, the flotation unit comprises a pair of generally cylindrical flotation arm elements, which are operatively connected to both the upper platform unit and the lower ramp unit.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the lower ramp unit comprises a generally rectangular flexible ramp member fabricated from a sheet of flexible material that is dimensioned to support a dog when suspended from the flotation arm elements of the flotation member wherein, the flexible platform member is further provided with a generally U-shaped spreader bar that forms a downwardly depending enlarged scoop opening to facilitate the access of a dog onto the ramp member.
Furthermore, the upper platform unit which includes a generally rigid contoured upper platform member that provides an elevated, dry resting platform for a dog wherein the upper platform member is provided with conventional securing elements that are adapted to be releasably connected to a dock, duck blind, boat, etc.,